“Managing up" is an approach that anyone can use to build and maintain a positive working relationship with his or her boss. A true intention to promote a cooperative and productive relationship will help you deliver the best possible results for you, your boss and your organization. Whether this is your first or tenth job, regardless of your level or title, learning how to best communicate with your supervisor and quickly understanding his or her agenda is crucial for taking ownership of your career and setting yourself up for long-term success.
Related: 3 Rules To Managing Up
Rosanne Badowski, co-author of "Managing Up: How to Forge an Effective Relationship With Those Above You" was Jack Welch's executive assistant at General Electric Co. for 13 years. "Doing what you can to make your manager's job easier will not only help them do their job, but you will be considered a valuable asset to your manager and to your organization," she says. "You want to be described as indispensable."
Self-Reflection
Understanding your work style, strengths, areas for development, and even your personality type are good ways to determine how you may need to adjust to your boss's work style. We know that people may work differently from each other, and some people are more difficult to work with than others. Remember, you encompass 50% of the relationship with your supervisor.
Pay attention. Know what you don't know. Your strength may help compensate for your boss's weakness. For example, if your boss is not a planner, offer to create and send out the monthly team meeting agenda (which in turn will help meet everyone's needs), or if your boss is more strategic and less technical, offer to create the slides for the next Board presentation. The more you can dependably jump in when needed, follow through on your commitments, maintain a good attitude despite the situation, present quality work, and adjust your work style to meet your boss's needs, the more quickly you will be managing up!
Ask Questions. Never Assume.
If you have not done so already (and especially if you are just beginning to work for someone new), it's crucial to schedule a meeting with your supervisor and set expectations, goals, and priorities. Ask questions to understand your boss's viewpoint and know what defines success for your boss, you, your team, and the organization. Selectively use your boss's time (and yours!) for the necessary only. Here are a few helpful questions to ask:
What are your expectations and main goals?
What role do you envision me playing to help us reach these goals?
How do you prefer to stay informed of progress and how often do you want updates?
Notice how your boss makes decisions. Are they based on hard data or intuition? If he or she has a more analytical style, ensure you always have the right data to support your idea. Are decisions made quickly or is more time needed to process information and determine next steps? Be prepared to discuss all angles of the situation with your recommended solution and determine the time frame needed for an answer. Does your boss have any obvious pet peeves? If your supervisor makes it clear that he or she despises when people use “texting language" in emails, or when team members are just one minute late to a meeting, then be extremely mindful to avoid these situations.
Manage Your Personal Brand
Managing your personal brand will also help you manage up. Follow the company's policies and procedures, stay out of office politics and avoid gossip with co-workers. If you make a mistake or miss a deadline, acknowledge the situation and take ownership of it immediately. Do not place blame on others or make excuses. However, it is critical to immediately inform your boss not just about the issue at hand, but also your response to it. Clearly and succinctly outline the situation, potential impacts, and recommended solution. Address it head on and resolve to learn from it.
Keeping your boss informed on progress, deadlines, and challenges will help prevent unwelcome surprises. Be proactive, anticipate issues, and manage risks to avoid “fires." Ask for feedback and graciously accept it all - good and bad. This will also help you learn and progress in your career.
In summary, in order to appropriately manage up, you need to:
Understand your own work style.
Learn your boss's preferences by asking questions and observing his or her behaviors so you can adjust as needed.
Manage your personal brand by building credibility through your actions.
Jennifer Malach is a Certified Executive & Career Coach with over 20 years experience in the professional services and software development industries including 17 years with Accenture, a global management consulting, technology, and outsourcing company. She has extensive experience in recruiting, interviewing, hiring, coaching, training and developing talent to promote their learning, retention and advancement. Jennifer has also led, managed, and mentored teams across North America.
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by a CAREEREALISM-approved expert.
Is your job search turning into a grind with no end in sight? It may be time to take a step back and reevaluate your entire approach.
In cold weather climates, the beginning of spring is a time to clean the house and get organized—a practice known as spring cleaning. Through the years, spring cleaning has taken on a larger meaning with people using the time to organize and declutter things in their lives.
For professionals on the job hunt, a little spring cleaning (metaphorically speaking) could be a great way to reinvigorate your job search. Here are a few strategies your job search spring cleaning should include.
Reevaluate Your Job Search Approach
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Make a list of the last handful of jobs you applied for and see if you can identify any positive or negative trends. Consider things like:
How did I learn about this job?
How did I apply for the job?
Did I earn an interview?
What was the ultimate result?
A lot can be learned about your job search approach just by answering these questions and identifying patterns. For example:
Negative Trends
You discovered five jobs through job boards, applied to all of them via the job boards, and never heard back from any of them.
The common pattern here is applying through job boards. This isn't to say that job boards don't serve a purpose in the job search process, but they have their limitations, and you can't run your job search entirely off of them. When you apply through a job board, there's a good chance that your materials will never get past the applicant tracking system (ATS) and never be seen by an actual person.
One simple fix is to research who the hiring manager or recruiter is that posted the position and email your materials to them directly.
The more efficient fix would be to take a proactive approach by putting together a bucket list of companies that you want to work for and start making connections on LinkedIn with people who work at those companies. You may already know some people who work there or have connections that can refer you to some individuals.
This is a great way to network your way onto a company's radar.
Positive Trends
You applied to three jobs via referral, were invited to two job interviews, and made it through multiple rounds of interviews for one of the jobs before being passed over for someone with a little more experience.
The pattern here is that getting referred to a job by a professional acquaintance is a great way to land a job interview. This indicates that you're leveraging your network well and you should continue to focus on your networking efforts.
The next step is to review the interview process and determine what went well and what needs to be improved. Sometimes the interviewer will provide feedback, and that feedback can be valuable. However, not everyone is comfortable with giving feedback.
Chances are you probably have a good idea about areas of improvement and the skills you need to gain. Put together a plan for addressing those shortfalls.
The good news in making it deep into any interview process is that it indicates that the company likes you as a potential employee (even if the timing just wasn't right) and the experience could be a roadmap to a job with that company at a later date, or another similar opportunity elsewhere.
Give Your Resume & Cover Letter Some Much-Needed Attention
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Are you continuously sending similar resumes and cover letters to each job opening with only minor adjustments? If so, your strategy needs some serious spring cleaning.
The reason why it's so important to tailor your resume is that throughout your career, you acquire numerous skills, but the job you're applying for may only be focusing on 6-8 of those skills. In that case, those skills must rise to the top of the resume with quantifiable examples of how you successfully used those skills at previous jobs.
Remember, recruiters go through hundreds of resumes. They need to be able to tell from a quick glance whether or not you're a potential candidate for the position.
While updating your resume, you could also spruce up your LinkedIn profile by highlighting the skill sets that you want to be noticed for by recruiters.
As for writing a good cover letter, the key to success is writing a disruptive cover letter. When you write a disruptive cover letter, you're basically telling a story. The story should focus on how you connect with the particular company and job position. The story could also focus on your personal journey, and how you got to where you currently are in your career.
If your resumes and cover letters aren't unique, now is the time to clean things up and get on track.
Build Your Personal Brand
Just because you're looking for work doesn't mean that you don't have anything to offer. Use previous career experiences and passions to build your personal brand.
Ask yourself, "How do I want other professionals to view me?"
Pick an area of expertise and start sharing your knowledge and experience with your professional network by pushing out content on your LinkedIn and social media accounts. Good content can include blogs, social media posts, and videos.
By sharing content about your experiences and passions, you slowly build your personal brand, and others will start to notice. The content could lead to good discussions with others in your network. It could also lead to reconnecting with connections that you haven't spoken to in years, or making new connections.
You never know when one of these connections could turn into a job lead or referral. The trick is to get on people's radars. So, when you're cleaning up your job search, be sure to build a plan for personal branding.
Maintain Healthy Habits During Your Job Search
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Your job search is important, but it's even more important to know when to pull back and focus on personal health and spending time with family and friends.
There are actually things that you can do for your own enjoyment that could help your job search in the long run, such as:
Grab coffee with a friend - It's good to engage in light conversation with friends during challenging times. And if your job search does come up, remember that most people have been through it themselves and you never know when a friend may provide you with a good idea or lead on a job.
Volunteer - Volunteering is a great way to get involved in the community and help others. In addition, if you develop a little bit of a career gap while looking for a job, you can always talk about how you filled that time volunteering, if you're asked about it during a job interview.
Continue to focus on other passions - Are you a fitness nut? Blogger? Crafter? Continue to do the things that bring you happiness. And if you're in a position to profit from your passion through a freelance job or side hustle, even better!
Spring is the perfect time to clean up and improve your job search so you can land the job you want. If you're struggling to find a job, follow the tips above to reinvigorate your job search—and watch your career blossom!
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.
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